Hello All, Really good to share the news I passed exam with flying colors! I cannot thank more PMP Exam Simulator which I believe was key to my success .
How Did I prepare for exam ?
1. I decided I wanted to pass this exam and based on research decided it would take me 3 months but this was wrong due to
me missing key understanding of how pmp exam test you abilities ( which is at expert PM with large project experience) .
2. I use Udemy to get my 35 contact hours for qualifying PMP exam from Sabri. C. I must say course was good and cover all aspect of PMBOK
and PMP exam topics but it was not enough for me to answer situational based question when I took some practice exam.
3. I quickly realized I need more knowledge , practice and efforts before I think about sitting in exam.
4. Hence , I got engaged with my previous collegue who recently become PMP who refered me to use PMP Exam Simulator & RITAs book.
5. My research shows the same, so I purchased RITAs book and PMP Exam Simulator ( Best investment ever for PMP).
6. I read RITAS book inside-out for about 5 times ( may be too much but I was not knowing how tough the exam will be as everywhere it was said
the exam is too tough and test you at an expert level and my goal was to pass the exam in first attempt).
7. I scored about 74% on PMP Exam Simulators first 4 exam , so I knew I was on right track but still too afraid to book an exam until I thought I take all test.
8. I failed exam 5 ( just below precast score - 65%) and excelled in next 2 and then failed ITTO ( 63%).
9. I did not wanted to wait any more due to the fact I was too much involved in preparation and exams I thought to give it a go .
I applied follwing stratergy after reading PM PrepCast reviews of other exam takers.
- 2 days before exam I got little nervous and was thinking my chances of passing/failing was 50/50 and may fail by just reaching the pass limit ( which is unknown !)
- But some pmp website suggested passing score about 65 % and above was good .
- I was miserable at remembering and answering correct ITTOs question and decided to not to pursue ITTOs as my main focus ( as few website suggested ITTO quesiton
only takes about 5 -10 questions, so I thouht ts not worth an effort)
- I focused on closing my gaps on knowledge areas but decided I wanted to 100 % on initiating and closing knowledge area and at Integration ,RISK management.
- I consistently scored low/below average on resourse, schedule and communication/stakeholders and this was my worry but no matter who I study I could not raise my bar
in this areas. so I decided to leave this as it and changed stratergy .
My final prepartion stratergy :
- I focused on integrated change control ,closing and project intitiating .
- Most of question on exam where related to Integrated change control, what to do next , what is best thing to do, so, I suggest future aspirants to be best prepared at this.
- Have confident in your abilities and answer questions with you gut feeling which you believe it correct based on your pmp precast simulator experience and reading.
- I said to myself as others suggested, I would be PMP after this exam .. and I did this repetatively to boost my confidence and get my nervousness away.
Exam experience :
- Exam was tough and questions were similar to PMP Exam Simulator .
- Some of answer choices were not logical and it took me more time to eliminate wrong answers as I was not confident on most of the questions about exactly correct answers.
- I focused on present question and eventhough I was not sure about answer I choose best answer while reviewing as I realized I may not get time to review same questions again.
- first 90 quesitons before break I reviewing it about 20 minutes . Last 110 question after break I had 120 minutes and I only completed all just 2 min before, so I think you would need lot of
practice to finish exam on time ( but this may be different person to person ).
- After finishing exam my gut feeling was I did OK on exam ( based on my fear and being conservative) and not 100% sure if I would pass
- But when I got my score I almost could not believe it ! I excelled in all 5 areas with Above TARGET score which I was not aiming ( only aiming for passing the exam ).
If you pass consistently in PMP Exam Simulator then I believe you give it a go and be confident and you should be fine ! Good Luck !
